Clumsiness
by Albedo de Lute
Summary: FE:SS Two people are two clumsy to express their feelings for the other, but a friend helps them along. Gerik x Marisa.


**Clumsiness**

Gerik leaned back in his mercenary outfit's headquarter's chief's office's chair. It had been quite a while since he had last sat in it, apostrophes and all, but now he was back - until the next customer arrived, at least. The table in front of him was almost sagging under the weight of a large pile of assorted precious metals and jewels held in an intricately decorated box that in itself would have sufficed for his fee for his most dangerous expedition thus far.

"Prince Innes pays very well and on time, doesn't he?" Gerik asked rhetorically. Exactly three months had passed since Fomortiis was finally destroyed and the contract fulfilled.

"He does, Chief," Marisa answered from her standing position by the door, the stoic look on her face masking her true thoughts and emotions as usual. Then she added, "But. He did only because he got more."

_So much for trying to be sociable,_ Gerik thought. However, she _had_ spoken more than ten words in one go, and coming from Marisa this was as sociable as things get. She had improved in that aspect - somewhat. It did not help, though, that she had a way of stating facts so flatly and bluntly that anyone would have difficulty carrying the conversation on.

The source of this exceptionally large mercenary's fee was, strangely, the peculiar (translated as overbearing and hyperactive) Princess L'Arachel of Rausten. She had demanded so strongly that the army "cleanse" the Lagdou Ruins, that the army had reluctantly gone and done just that. From a ground perspective, it had meant fighting so many monsters that near the end Gerik was using a slim sword to conserve his arm strength. And Marisa... suffice it to say that after the ordeal she was an adapt swordfighter with not just two, but all four of her limbs. After a final victory over an angry horde of dracozombies, the army with the help of the rogues unearthed if not quite a sea, than a large lake of treasure under the tiles of the innermost sanctum. It was perhaps the closest thing to the legends of treasure from a dragon's lair anyone would find.

So, as Marisa had aptly put it, the Crown Prince of Frelia naturally got a substantial share of the loot, a tiny fraction of which had been paid to Gerik's mercenaries. There did not seem to be much to say after that. Gerik stood with a sigh and walked over to Marisa.

"Something wrong, Chief?" The icy swordswoman of the desert queried.

"No, Marisa..." The Desert Tiger wondered how he would ask his question. Strange how he could chop up enemies on the battlefield with ease, yet here he could not manage to make one simple request. He knew she had feelings for him, even though she had tried clumsily to hide them. Why was this so difficult? "Marisa, do you..." his voice trailed off yet again.

The magenta-haired swordmaster allowed a calculated look of confusion to appear on her beautiful, unblemished face. "Chief? Are you all right?"

Out of some corner of his mind, a thought burst out into the open in Gerik's brain. _When in battle, gain the initiative. Do not be so intimidated that you lose before it starts._

Strengthened by resolve, Gerik let his hands speak what his lips could not and held Marisa's hands in his own.

She made a half-hearted attempt to wrest them free, but he held on and did not let go. There was silence for a few moments, until it was Marisa, surprisingly, who broke it.

"I'm being improper, Chief."

"Huh?" In his surprise, Gerik's grip loosened, and Marisa left the room almost running. "But I'm just trying to return the affection you want to give me..." He stood in the ray of desert sun streaming in through the window like an idiot, staring blankly at the open doorway where she had gone.

* * *

Most people would take the arrival of a king at their home as a significant event at the very least, but Joshua, king of Jehanna, did not act like one when he was not forced to. This explained why he was semi-secretly visiting a certain friend as the desert sun began to set, accompanied by only a small select escort of knights. 

The sound of hooves beating the dust aroused Gerik from the stupor he was in, and he glanced out through the window to see his friend with the unique hat riding in from the dusk. Joshua dismounted at the gate of the mercenary compound and walked it. He was a semi-regular visitor; the gate watchmen allowed him to enter unhindered. His knights also dismounted and struck up a conversation with the guards to pass the time. There was not much chance of someone trying to attack the king while he was in the middle of an armed camp led by a comrade from a recent war.

Joshua was surprised to see Gerik in low spirits, especially after the windfall he was rumoured to have been paid by Innes for the hiring fee.

"Lady Luck not on your side today, Gerik?" Joshua asked in an attempt to cheer his friend.

"Ladies…" Gerik muttered. "You don't know how lucky you are, having Natasha."

"Love problems?" Joshua laughed. "Why then, the right man has come to your house. Just bet with her on the flip of a coin, since you're even better than I am at it."

"That's because unlike you, O king of Jehanna, I broke my gambling habit many years ago." The trace of a smile returned to his mouth.

They went inside.

* * *

"Marisa?" Joshua almost bent double laughing, but he still managed to keep his cards out of Gerik's sight. He tossed two cards onto the table. "Pair of queens. I've already got one, and you… not a good idea to go against Lady Luck, my friend. Ask her again tonight!" 

"Don't Luck and Natasha make a pair of queens already?" Gerik protested.

"No, no," Joshua sputtered while grasping his side, "let's see your cards-" he reached out and flipped two of Gerik's cards down to the table – "pair of kings! You aren't going to get out of this one. Two men and two women in two pairs!"

Gerik resigned himself to the worst. "I just can't…" he said lamely.

"Then I 'ppose I'll just have to help

"Huh?" Gerik wondered since when Joshua became a matchmaker. Not that he was against it in this situation…

"Just sit here and wait."

Joshua left with a smirk on his face.

* * *

Finding Marisa did not take long, since she was where he expected her to be – namely, in her quarters. He asked permission to enter, and when she, recognizing the voice, allowed it, he was not surprised to see her still fully dressed, with the slightest tinge of red in her eyes. Her room was spartan, and its starkness only emphasized her beauty. Joshua thought he could somewhat understand why the two had fallen for one other. A pity that each was too clumsy to express it to the other, but that was why he was here. 

"Yes?" she asked, blunt as ever.

"Care to make a wager?" he asked, tossing the coin in his hand up and down.

Marisa was rightly suspicious, but she merely said, "Suit yourself." But then she thought better of it and added, "Give me the coin. I'll toss." He handed it over, and after satisfying herself that it indeed had both heads and tails, she prepared to launch it into the air.

"Heads or tails?" Joshua asked. "If you win, you owe me a favour, but if you win, I owe you a favour."

"Heads." Marisa answered, throwing the coin up, watching it tumble back into her palm… she caught it in her closed hand and tried to open it, but Joshua hand stopped her.

"Slowly now…" he smiled, allowing her fingers to unravel slowly, revealing the coin. It came up tails. "My lucky day, but luck may smile on you too-"

"What is the favour?" Marisa asked right away, interrupting him.

Joshua took a deep breath and quickly made a visual skim of Marisa's body for hidden weapons, just in case. She did not seem to be carrying any. He spoke slowly. "Go kiss Gerik on the lips," he said as calmly as he could.

"Pervert." The next moment Joshua found a small dagger an inch away from his abdomen. He thought he had seen her foot move up and her hand reach down – now he knew why Marisa was called the Crimson Flash. It was not a very pleasant situation that he found himself in, especially since she looked ready to drive the dagger forward a few feet any moment.

"It's for your own good," he tried to explain. "You agreed to the bet!"

She was gone in a frowning flash.

* * *

Gerik was surprised when Marisa burst into his office. He was disagreeably surprised when Marisa burst into his room holding a dagger with a dangerous expression on her face. His shock must have been evident, because she immediately returned her dagger to its sheath in her boot and apologized. 

"Sorry, Chief."

"Are y'all right?" Gerik asked, his breathing gradually returning to normal. He stood up and approached her.

"I betted with Joshua."

"Hm-"

Gerik's words were cut off as Marisa kissed him.

Or rather, as Marisa's nose collided with his. As she pushed her face up and forwards to make contact with his lips, she knocked him off balance through a combination of shock and force causing them both of them to fall backwards onto the table. Her lips rubbed roughly against his, and then as quickly as she had come onto him she stepped back as if nothing had happened.

"What was that?" Gerik managed to groan while rubbing his sore back, nose, and mouth.

"A kiss," Marisa answered.

"It's that wager with Joshua, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Gerik sighed. "Tell me, do you want me to teach you how to kiss properly?"

"…"

He took that as a yes, and moved close to her again. This time she did not run away…

* * *

Joshua smiled as he heard the moans and grunts coming from Gerik's closed and locked office door. He sat down on a chair outside the room and waited for the sun to rise.

* * *

Gerik opened the door to find Joshua waiting just outside, seated on a chair and smirking smugly. Marisa quickly passed Gerik and left without a word, but she did have a blush on her cheeks. 

Gerik collapsed onto another chair next to Joshua and sighed.

"From the sounds I heard all night, you two must have been quite busy," Joshua teased.

"Quite," Gerik answered, and the fatigue was evident in his voice.

"So, how is she?" Joshua pressed.

"Isn't Natasha enough for you?" Gerik countered, because one does not usually feel too comfortable discussing the intimate details of one's sex life, even with close friends.

"We don't go from sundown to sunrise, Natasha and I," Joshua said as a comeback.

"Give a man who has kept it up for ten hours straight a break, please," Gerik begged, not even bothering to stifle a huge yawn.

"I will, once you answer a question."

"Then ask quickly."

"How many times did you guys come?" Joshua asked with a huge grin.

"You really want to know?"

"I do."

"Zero."

"What?" Joshua exclaimed in utter surprise. "I refuse to believe that. An entire night without…" his voice trailed off in wonder at this remarkable feat.

"I've just proved she's clumsy at _everthing_ but fighting", Gerik explained with another giant yawn. "It troubles me."

"You two have time to sort these things out, but most importantly you have to treasure each other…" Joshua sounded uncharacteristically thoughtful. "So Natasha tells me, and I think she's right."

"Mn…"

"Gerik?" Joshua looked at him, only to find his friend already asleep.

As he quietly left the building, Joshua thought he could see a magenta-haired figure cover most of Gerik's sleeping form with a blanket.

* * *

_Gerik, the Desert Tiger & Marisa, the Crimson Flash_

_Gerik remained a mercenary, and Marisa became his company's fencing instructor. Gerik returned the affection she gave him, although he was troubled to learn she was clumsy at everything but fighting._

Fin.


End file.
